Just a few weeks before the one-year anniversary of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, and other members of the dangerous “alt-right,” one of the top people in the federal government whose job it is to secure the “homeland” is protecting the very people who are attacking those who live here.

“I think what’s important about that conversation is, it’s not that one side is right, one side is wrong,” Secretary Nielsen told NBC News’ Peter Alexander Thursday afternoon, when asked specifically about the August 2017 Charlottesville rally that left one woman, Heather Heyer, dead.

Nielsen did note, “Anybody that is advocating violence, we need to work to mitigate.”

ThinkProgress’ Aaron Rupar reports that afterwards, in a follow up with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “Alexander said, ‘there wasn’t a condemnation of white nationalism and white supremacy that I think a lot of people would want to hear from the secretary of Homeland Security on this issue.'”

“You heard her in their own words,” Alexander continued. “They were striking to me and I think striking to a lot of people in the room.”

In the video, as Secretary Nielsen delivers her “both sides” remarks, echoing the infamous words of President Donald Trump last August, Alexander moves his head down, almost as if he’s embarrassed or ashamed of her comments.

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

“The first thing we would do is make sure our debt is taken care of,” Leader McCarthy told reporters. Under President Donald Trump federal spending has spiraled out of control. The federal budget deficit this week just hit $1 trillion.

Internet Blasts ‘Petulant Brat’ Meghan McCain After She Defends AR-15s and Says ‘I’m Not Living Without Guns’

“If you’re talking about taking people’s guns from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence,” McCain says.

Meghan McCain is getting blasted for defending assault weapons and telling her co-hosts on “The View” that she won’t live without guns. Her comments come just days after his yet another mass shooting in Texas left seven people dead and on the same day Walmart announced it will stop selling certain types of ammunition and asked customers to not carry guns openly in their stores.

After describing herself as the “chick on the panel that spent most of her break shooting,” McCain said ensuring guns remain legal is “a ground-level issue” for her, as The Daily Beast reported.

“If you’re going to be a gun-grabber, you don’t get my vote, period. We got to have a different conversation,” she announced.

“The AR-15 is by far the most popular gun in America, by far,” McCain continued. “I was just in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, if you’re talking about taking people’s guns from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence.”

Meghan McCain suggests civilians will shoot other Americans if there’s an assault weapons ban: “The AR-15 is by far the most popular gun in America … if you’re talking about taking people’s guns, there’s going to be a lot of violence.”#walmart

How much protection does a rich famous white woman, who gets chauffeured around everywhere, and lives in safe protected neighborhood need, Meghan McCain? I’m a low income female living alone in a low income neighborhood. I don’t own a gun. #TheViewhttps://t.co/Ji2uWWMxMU

They should make a reality show with Sarah Sanders, Meghan McCain, and Sean Spicer where they go to a deserted island and there are no cameras and they just stay there and no one ever has to hear from those assholes again.

I f Megan McCain’s baby had a bullet go through her mouth. And that bullet was shot by a man who couldn’t legally purchase that gun except through a loophole, she would understand. Unfortunately Meghan lacks the ability to empathize for anyone but herself. #TheView

Imagine enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces and being posted overseas. Perhaps you marry, have or adopt children, then try to bring your kids home to visit their grandparents for Christmas. Under a new Trump administration rule you might find out for the first time your children, born to American citizens but not born on American soil, are not U.S. citizens.

It’s an astonishing development, just the latest in President Donald Trump’s so-called “America First” brand of nationalism that, just like many of his other policies, could be most harmful to even his most ardent supporters.

The just-published rule reveals the U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Service “no longer considers children of U.S. government employees and U.S. armed forces members residing outside the United States as ‘residing in the United States’ for purposes of acquiring citizenship under INA 320.”

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tal Kopan broke the news:

Today USCIS issued guidance that DHS “no longer considers children of U.S. government employees and U.S. armed forces members residing outside the United States as ‘residing in the United States’ for purposes of acquiring citizenship” —https://t.co/IRNR21Qm4P

“The policy change explains that we will not consider children who live abroad with their parents to be residing in the United States even if their parents are U.S. government employees or U.S. service members stationed outside of the United States, and as a result, these children will no longer be considered to have acquired citizenship automatically,” USCIS spokesperson Meredith Parker told the military and veteran-focused news site Task & Purpose.

Here’s how one attorney explains it:

Military members and government employees, even though they were at their posts overseas, were deemed to be residing in the US for immigration purposes. That meant their kids could acquire their citizenship automatically through the looser requirements of Section 320. pic.twitter.com/Ft7fcpMytc

In late October of this year, the notice says, that deemed residency is ending, which–as I understand it–is generally going to put military and govt employees abroad in the position of proving they check all the boxes of 301(c) or applying for their children’s naturalization.

One reporter says USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli is “trying to backdoor an end to birthright citizenship.”

Whoa. Under @USCISCuccinelli, @USCIS is trying to backdoor an end to birthright citizenship with new “guidance” to make it more difficult for Americans who reside outside the United States to pass citizenship on to their children.https://t.co/U3jOB8NJNm